It is now the Jewish month of Adar, which means we are entering into a very happy period on the Jewish calender, and that certainly is great news, right? Last night as my nine year old instinctively lay on the floor and started drawing this clown, I was taken down memory lane to all the sweet little clowns he has drawn over the years.....this one is just a bit more sophisticated, with fire crackers, that he is throwing on the ground and apparently a can of Coke (forbidden poison in our home, but available everywhere, unfortunately) in his pocket, sigh. At least he isn't smoking!

So dear readers, for those of us who celebrate the fabulous holiday of Purim, it is time to get into full gear, with costumes, decorations, and of course mishloach manot. I'll confess, I was in New York last week and stopped by Amazing Savings....their row of containers for Purim was enough to make anyone dizzy, and even I was swayed to buy something small, in my case drawstring burlap bags printed with a zig zag pattern which were easy to bring home and will make cute treat bags. Of course I'll crochet a flower or something to adorn the bag, but no major crafting to do.....not that there isn't enough to do, I've got to whip up three of the best costumes in town as usual!

This year we are going to be a fisherman (as in on a boat), a paper doll, and spaghetti and meatballs! All somewhat do-able, and no intensive crocheting involved, but rather some sewing! I'll keep you posted, and wishing you all a very joyful new month!

You may think I'm getting a bit of a late start on heart shaped crafts, but truthfully a heart shaped crocheted basket made from rope can be a truly great thing to crochet anytime of year! This sturdy little basket would be a great way to display beloved treasures, a fun prop for a DIY wedding or celebration of any kind, or a great gift filled with something edible or even a collection of small soaps.

Now, I must confess, crocheting with rope can be a bit hard on the hands, and I even got a blister crocheting this beauty, but it was well worth it! I'll be writing up this pattern and placing it in my crochetxoxo Etsy shop within the next few days, so stay tuned! In the mean time, pick up some 3-ply cotton cord sold at the hardware store in a ball, and a 6.5mm hook and you'll be all set to go!

Oh, and by the way, this would be a great little basket for giving mishloach manot on Purim to that special someone......with the holiday just two weeks away you won't have time to crochet a bunch of these, but certainly you can find some time to make a few! Let me know if you want a heads up that the pattern is available in my shop, and yes, sometimes it is truly worth it to buy a pattern that is a result of someone else's hours and hours of experimentation! You should see all the heart shaped baskets that didn't make the cut, oh, and the heart shaped rug that I made (or rather tried to make) before arriving at this basket.....such is the life of the obsessed crocheter!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, I hope you are all well! I am writing to you from a very wet and rainy Northern Israel, which certainly is great crafting weather! I have my eye on that sweet heart wall hanging below, maybe in some different colors? And dear readers, while most of the heart crafts I've featured were made for a certain holiday, hearts can actually be a great way to celebrate "ahavas Yisrael" (love your fellow man) a concept that we celebrate on the Jewish holiday of L'Ag B'Omer, just three months from now. And as you all know, time certainly flies, and who wouldn't want to make some hearts? Enough rambling from me, here are the features from wonderful contributors from around the world:

A crocheted heart wall hanging from howling at the moon, (the Netherlands) and a gorgeous and oh so colorful traditional granny square afghan from chris in de haak, (The Netherlands) and love that trim!

Tiny little crocheted roses from my crochet projects (Germany) and love this free knitted heart pattern from Ginx crafts, (the UK) I may just have to give it a try myself!

Even though there aren't any Jewish holidays that celebrate hearts, I certainly am not immune to all the heart shaped cuteness going on out there, and so I just had to indulge myself and have a go at this little heart shaped crocheted basket that I've had my eye on for some time. (Especially since on account of jet lag and being on a clock that is seven hours behind ours here in Israel I had a long long night in which to crochet!) The results you see here are 100% inspired by this fantastic crocheted heart basket, though I did add my own touch, and I did play around with the pattern just a bit which I'll explain to you below.

I will admit, this was actually the second heart basket that I made last night, the first one did not make the cut on account of its not stiff enough shape and the fact that I initially thought that dark blue and bright yellow might work....wrong. Fortunately the second try is a winner, and I can't wait to make some more!

Note: All t-shirt yarn is not created equal (weight wise), so while the pattern indicated a much larger hook, for the sake of making a basket that retained its shaped I decided to use a 6mm hook that is quite a bit smaller than what one would normally use with t-shirt yarn, and with great results.

Using grey t-shirt yarn crochet a heart according to this pattern, and then consult the heart basket pattern for general directions. Do note however that I made the following changes in the pattern to achieve a slightly more open looking basket:

Row 1 of basket side: Crochet into from loop only. Crochet 2 sc into the middle stitch of the 7 trc group from the previous round

Row 2 of basket side: Crochet into from loop only.Crochet 2 sc in the stitch before the incread of row 1, sc, and crochet 2 sc in next stitch

Row 3 of basket side: Crochet into both loops. Crochet 2 sc in the stitch before the first increase of row 2, sc, and crochet 2 sc in next stitch, sc, and crochet 2 sc in next stitch.

After completion of row 3, using a strand of pink and a strand of red cotton and a 3.5mm hook, crochet all around the edge, making two sc into each stitch. Crochet another row. in which you skip a stitch at the bottom point of the heart and the top middle of the heart to help enhance the heart shape.

Enjoy and thanks again to Cinthia over at my poppet for her wonderful pattern and inspiration!

Oh and by the way, wouldn't this be an adorable little mishloach manot basket for Purim? Then again, this heart shaped crocheted basket would be great just about anytime!

Presenting my most favorite crocheted winter accessory this year: a long and chunky granny square scarf in black, white and gray, to wrap around several times, for a very cozy and stylish look! I wore this scarf in NYC (yes, I was there briefly!) last week and was so glad I took it along!

And as you can see, this is no ordinary granny square, but something that I'm calling a granny sunburst square, as it has a round middle, that makes it look just a bit more contemporary than the classic granny square.

And not that we ever want to see our handiwork on the floor, but this scarf looks great hanging around just about anywhere!

For complete instructions, plus step by step photos for crocheting this scarf in all its cozy lovliness, you can purchse the pattern in my little Etsy shop, crochetxoxo, which I hope to slowly yet surely fill up with lots more great patterns! And for those of you who haven't given this any thought, buying patterns for a small fee now and again is a great way to give back to all the bloggers out there who give so much of themselves just because!

And in case you scolled down to the bottom of the post, the pattern is available here. Thanks for your support!

My nine year old has been creating electronic devices from paper for years, and now introducing his latest creation: a play iPhone, made from paper, kleenex, string and tape! Not to mention that it was created totally from memory, as there weren't any iPhones anywhere in sight!

His little illustrations of icons are just the cutest and his earwires made from yarn and tape are truly lifesize, I had to take this little creation out of his ears in order to photograph it! And I guess I should mention that this phone is padded with a layer of kleenex to give it some thickness.

Oh, and check out that apple logo on the back of the phone......truly adorable!

So dear readers, while I can't take any credit whatsoever for this little paper iPhone, do encourage your kids to make the electronic gadgets of their dreams from paper, my son was so very proud of his little creation. And one last note to my dear mother who worries that my kids, won't be able to function in the "modern world" as they aren't currently exposed to computers.....know any kids that are exposed to computers that would have the patience and creativity to make a little iPhone like this one? Point made, sorry mom, and hopefully some inspiration for the rest of you out there to encourage lots more crafting and creative play and lots less computer and TV time!

Welcome to craft schooling Sunday! Thanks so much to you all for joining me here! Last week's party was full of fantastic projects as always, though I could only consider roughly the first half of the contributions for features on account of needing to prepare this post way in advance. but not to worry, I'll look at the rest for consideration next week. One remarkable thing to note about the features, there are no crochet projects! Hard to believe as sometimes the features have been nearly all crochet projects, but I guess the crocheters are coming to the party a bit late as they're all too busy crocheting, which I can certainly understand! And now for the features, enjoy:

Love this yarn heart ornament to make anytime, from Aunt Peaches, and this fantastic dip dyed lampshade also from Aunt Peaches.

A super fun tassel necklace DIY tutorial from jewelry making journal and a fun knit ruffled scarf called the potato chip scarf (because you'll want to keep making more!) from Ginx crafts, who did make several already with plans to knit more!

Threading my way shared a post about spool knitting which apparantly is called "french knitting" in Australia, on the very same day that I also posted about spool knitting, amazing crafting energy that influenced us both though we are literally on opposite sides of the world! And love this little drawstring bag that threading my way made to hold the spool, just a coincidence that it has hearts on it as it was made in November!

A fantastic post on hand exercises and massage for knitters and crocheters who may have some hand pain, (or not, preventive exercises are good too!) from eye love knots.

Looking for a crochet sweater pattern for a sweet girl in your life? A crochet sweater pattern that perhaps is made in one piece, has simple enough instructions and results in a cozy sweater that also has lots of style? Oh and don't forget can be made relatively quickly! Look no further, I found a great pattern that you can crochet as is, or adapt, as I did for a slightly different look.

And while I used the yarn that is specified, namely Homespun, since I happen to have a lot of it to use up in my stash (yippee, now I have only a few more skeins to use up, and I actually made two of these sweaters!) you can certainly use the yarn of your choice.

Note: I used a 6mm crochet hook and Homespun yarn, but went with the directions for the 9-10 year old size, as that resulted in the right size for my 12 year old average sized daughter, strangely enough.

Also, I increased the number of rows between the bottom of the sweater and the armpit to make a sweater that rather than being a cropped style hits the top of the thigh or somewhere quite a bit lower than the specifications in the pattern.

Have any little kittens that have lost their mittens? How about whipping out some paper and string and making this fun paper mittens winter craft with your little ones? For younger kids you can cut out the mittens and give them to the child to decorate, for older kids, how about decorating them with some fair isle patterns, or granny square patterns or the mitten patterns of your dreams?

This little pair of mittens was decorated very simply with some stickers by a two year old, but I'm sure you can have a lot more fun with this one. I was very tempted myselt to make some with fair isle patterns drawn on the mittens, or maybe a cross stitch pattern, but with so many other things on my list of to-dos, I decided that for the time being I'd share this with you in its simplest form, which is cute too!

Of all the school "art" projects that my daughter has brought home, I must say this one takes the prize for most inventive and most likely to have been made in the 70's. Nonetheless, though my daughter was totally baffled that the teacher thought that the girls should hang their "masterpieces" in the entryway, the technique used here is so very interesting that I just had to share it with you.

And truthfully this fabric sailboat art is starting to grow on me, but I keep wanting to see it framed in rope or something! I was thinking that maybe there is a brave crafter out there who would like the challenge of using this technique to create something different, whether it be as simple as say a heart, or maybe a bit more complicated like a letter? Here's how it is done, let me know if this inspires you!

You'll Need:

styrofoam, about 1"- 2" thick

lightweight fabric, disposable tablecloth material was use here

a craft knife

a metal ruler

a line drawing printed or drawn on paper to size

How To:

Pin your drawing to the piece of styrofoam, and using a ruler where necessary, cut along the lines of the drawing such that the design is cut into the styrofoam as deep as possible. Remove the paper and working on each section at a time, cut fabric that is roughly the size of that section and then using a metal ruler, push the fabric down into the slits, and trim off excess. To go around curves one will need to cut slits in the fabric to ease it around the curve. That is basically it, now go make something a bit kitschy, and don't say I didn't warn you!

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Thank you for visiting creative jewish mom.com. I hope you'll join me on the exciting journey of giving greater meaning to the everyday through creativity. This blog is my way of sharing with you the joys of crafting, decorating, cooking, and container gardening, as well as adventures in Israel and beyond, and of course parenting! I'm so happy to have this opportunity to connect with so many wonderful readers from around the world Please take a few moments to email me or leave comments. I'd really love to hear from you!